2014 Kill Bill Century: May 4, 2014 at 7am

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  • May 5, 2014 at 6:15 pm #1000341
    dcv
    Participant

    20140504_103333_zps81dbd64f.jpg
    fast friendly guy & tania cheering us on

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    shawnofthedread, VVill, DaveK on the lawn

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    SteveO’s battle scar from his crash at 41st st, badass brushed himself off and kept riding strong

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    Cheer squad taking an ice cream break

    May 5, 2014 at 6:23 pm #1000344
    vvill
    Participant

    @Subby 84319 wrote:

    I only finished through the combined effort of the social riders and my co-Killers. A thousand times thank you.

    My thoughts exactly. For a lot of the ride you get no benefit from drafting, so you’re essentially pushing yourself with the extra psychological boost from 10+ other crazies doing the same thing. And some awesome support group high fives!

    May 5, 2014 at 6:27 pm #1000345
    TwoWheelsDC
    Participant

    @dcv 84362 wrote:

    fast friendly guy & tania cheering us on

    I noticed you took the Breed…did it just have the best gearing? Seems like the extra weight and knobbier tires would be sub-optimal compared to the other bikes in your stable.

    May 5, 2014 at 6:31 pm #1000347
    vvill
    Participant

    @TwoWheelsDC 84367 wrote:

    @dcv 84362 wrote:

    [quote]

    I noticed you took the Breed…did it just have the best gearing? Seems like the extra weight and knobbier tires would be sub-optimal compared to the other bikes in your stable.

    He ran Gatorskins slicks for this ride I think. (I’m also guessing he picked it because it had a rear brake and didn’t want to have to add in a rear brake and cable on the dedicated fixies.)

    But yeah huge props to dcv… there were guys on CX bikes (ShawnDread), guys on touring bikes, guys on flat pedals, but to finish the whole enchilada on one gear?! Awesome and also… nuts!

    May 5, 2014 at 6:31 pm #1000348
    dcv
    Participant

    @TwoWheelsDC 84367 wrote:

    @dcv 84362 wrote:

    [quote]

    I noticed you took the Breed…did it just have the best gearing? Seems like the extra weight and knobbier tires would be sub-optimal compared to the other bikes in your stable.

    I only have 2 singlespeeds, the breed had the right gearing (66gi) so I just swapped out to gatorskin 28’s.

    May 5, 2014 at 7:12 pm #1000354
    creadinger
    Participant

    I definitely had a little bit more in the tank, but after getting dropped with a small group soon after the 2nd CVS stop, I wasn’t going to be able to catch up and trying to navigate that mess using cues was out of the question.

    Despite exiting earlier than I had wanted to, I had a great time and my quads aren’t even that sore today. Congrats to the finishers! Maybe next year I’ll join you, or at least make it 2/3rds of the way. Thanks Pete!

    May 6, 2014 at 6:30 am #1000377
    Dirt
    Participant

    The thing that I love/hate about this ride is that the challenge isn’t just one thing. The strength that we find to meet that challenge also doesn’t come from one place… or one set of skills.

    The hills, for sure, are brutal. The wind was tough. The number and frequency of turns are mind-boggling. The training, mental grit, wisdom and experience to feed and hydrate correctly, ability to find your way and a little help from your friends all needs to be there in both quantity and quality to finish the ride. We all have days where one, two, three or all fail us… and then we’re depending on luck to get us through. Sometimes that isn’t enough. It happens to me. I think it happens to all of us.

    It is weird, but NOT finishing the Kill Bill rides have been some of the best learning experiences I’ve ever had on a bicycle… and I’ve been riding bicycles for a long, long time. (Yes. I’ve failed to finish this ride 3 times over the years. As ride leader for every one of the dozens of rides I’ve lead on this evolving course, I’ve been flat-out lucky that I was always at least tied for the last person to bail.)

    This year my biggest challenges came on 2 completely different levels. I didn’t have the fitness this year that I’ve had in the past. Work and life changes haven’t given me the training time/miles to lead like I have in the last few years. Once Tim pulled off and I was balancing the need to get myself to the finish with the need to lead the fastest in the group, I found myself mumbling “gotta get to the front” between the big hills as I shifted up a few gears and stood up on the pedals. What got me through? The positive and patient support and teamwork of the group. Having the social ride there for moral support was big. :D

    The second challenge was purely physical. My wrist is still recovering from the break in September. Before Sunday I hadn’t shifted a front derailleur more than 5 or 6 times in a day. Sunday I lost count somewhere in the mid 30s. In a way it is odd that on such a leg intensive day, that it is my arm that gave me the most trouble. That is part of the challenge and ultimately the joy of this ride. My wrist is VERY tired and a little sore. I wrenched with it at work today for 9+ hours. It feels better today. It’ll feel better tomorrow.

    I intended this post to be something that is encouraging to the people who both did this ride and want to try it in the future. It is never one thing that makes a bike ride challenging. When rides TRULY take you out of your comfort zone, it is because of the combination of different challenges. How we meet those challenges is what makes me happily say “We should go for a bike ride!” every freakin’ day of my life. It also is the genesis of the sticker on the back of most of my bikes. “Follow me to certain death.” ;)

    I’ll say it again. I love you people.

    Pete

    May 6, 2014 at 6:33 am #1000378
    Dirt
    Participant

    Plus I love that we all yelled “Hi Drew” as we rolled past Drew’s house and he posted “Hi Everyone!” on my Facebook wall last night. :D

    May 6, 2014 at 9:05 pm #1000447
    Steve O
    Participant

    @dcv 84361 wrote:

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    DaveK on the left

    HF Chou (not on the forum) on the right.

    May 6, 2014 at 9:10 pm #1000448
    Steve O
    Participant

    @dcv 84370 wrote:

    @TwoWheelsDC 84367 wrote:

    I only have 2 singlespeeds

    I “only” have zero.

    May 6, 2014 at 9:13 pm #1000449
    DismalScientist
    Participant

    Certain limit screws on your derailleur can fix that.:rolleyes:

    May 7, 2014 at 2:35 am #1000472
    Bruno Moore
    Participant

    Okay, first, a HUGE thank you to the crew at Big Wheel Bikes next to The Italian Store for saving my bacon by loaning me a pair of flats when I realized I left my shoes at home. If one of you is reading this, they are coming back, along with the beer I promised. Without ’em, I would have missed the last 60+ miles rather than just the chunk I didn’t see thanks to my dawnphobia.

    Second, to everyone who was impressed with that guy charging up hills in hiking boots: I was impressed with you all having done the 50-ish miles I missed. Taking on every hill, giving each and every one a bit of The Love, was just a way of making up for lost time. Also, I’m still unlearning the lessons of the ’87 Schwinn School of Hill Climbing (“if your momentum doesn’t carry you up the hill, the bike’s will carry you down it”) and trying to figure out…well, something Sane.

    More to the point, though, there’s nothing like seeing someone sitting at the top of a hill with cowbells, cameras, and spicy rice & bean cakes, along with hearing an impromptu Liggett & Sherwin impersonation from your fellow riders, to inspire a bit of heroism/idiocy/fun/lunacy/love.

    Thanks once again to Pete for sharing the love with us, and to everyone involved for being generally awesome.

    May 7, 2014 at 2:48 am #1000474
    Dirt
    Participant

    Mike Miller’s Phil Liggett’s impersonations crack me up EVERY time. That’s why I make him ride every year. :D

    May 7, 2014 at 4:16 am #1000480
    Steve O
    Participant

    @Dirt 84304 wrote:

    I’d love to hear your stories of the ride!

    When I rode up at 6:55 or so there was a big crowd of cyclists: a lot more than I expected, which I knew was a good sign–I get positive energy from all of the rest of you.

    Since I had a 6PM event I needed to attend, I was only planning to ride to sjclaeys for the beer tasting before heading home to clean up. That is my legit excuse for DNF, but let me assure you, there is no way I could have finished the whole thing. I realized that at about mile 55. If I’d had the time and had kept going, I probably would have bailed about the same time as consular.

    The ride was going well until the gravel patch at the bottom of 41st St. I got a lot of support from everyone who made sure my bike and I were okay. Almost had a comical moment when TK came down the switchback to check on me (thanks!!) just as I was coming up. Not a place to pass.

    Anyway, I had to stop a couple of times to adjust my rear wheel in the dropouts, which was rubbing after the crash. On Utah or Taylor or something it happened again, and I stopped to adjust. The crowd rolled over the top of the hill and Nimish and I were left behind wondering where to go. After doing our best to follow the route on our inadequate electronic devices we decided just to head straight to the CVS, where we luckily hooked back up. (Note to self: take a backup printed cue sheet and a list of the rest stops next time.)

    I was pleased to see some of my FCC buds and also meet and re-meet a bunch of the rest of you. Even at that, with the large group, there are some of you I didn’t say hello to. So hello now; hope to see you again soon.

    Conflicts permitting, I’m in again next year. Now that I have a sense of it, I think I’ll have a better shot at making it all the way.

    Thanks Pete, KayakCyndi and all my fellow riders for a memorable (and mostly fun) experience.

    May 9, 2014 at 3:42 pm #1000716
    Vicegrip
    Participant

    @Vicegrip 83466 wrote:

    I am going to donate $10 to GRASP in Dirt’s name for each rider that finishes Kill Bill this year.

    14 rode Kill Bill start to finish. DCV killed it on a SS and that counts double in my book so I rounded up.

    Random notes from KB 2014.

    Great weather, great people. Big group with all kinds of bikes and riders. Lots of funny conversations when not gasping like landed fish. A overly flashy red white and black bike + a fashion forward 10 year old daughter that is also into cycling and has opinion on such things can produce inadvertent and near nauseating levels of Matchy-matchy. Thanks to Bike Kinetic for providing the Timing and Pace clock which consisted of 3 tasty looking foot long hoagies, one per jersey pocket. As the miles went up the subs went away like a reverse progress bar.

    “The Rules” are funny but one of them is wrong. It is not all about the bike. Even on a gaspipe wallmart bike the rider outweighs the bike. Same with this group, we may all like bikes but the people outweigh the bikes.

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